On August 5, 1981 President Ronald Reagan fired 11,345 striking air traffic controllers after they refused his order to return to work, thereby busting the union. On February 17, 2010 a child was heard directing air traffic at John F. Kennedy airport, only one of the busiest airports in THE WORLD, and naturally people are upset! Gee I wonder why??? This sounds like a parent who took the idea of "take your child to work day" a little too far! So how did this happen? What is the "back story"?

Apparently the controller in question brought children on two occasions last month on February 16th & 17th during what was then a week long winter break for many New York schoolchildren. The recordings were posted on livestc.net, a web site that has all kinds of actual controller conversations. I found a lot of very interesting recordings, some of which makes you wonder just how safe ARE WE when flying when youhave air traffic controllers bringing their children in with them and allowing them to actually talk to pilots? Is this crazy? Or am I just crazy for thinking it's crazy?